Boulder County commissioners voted 2-1 on June 30 to scrap a pilot that would have restricted certain trails to hikers, bikers, or equestrians on set days, after more than 7,500 public comments came in roughly 70% opposed. Here's what commissioners decided instead, and the trail-sharing etiquette that's now doing the heavy lifting.
If you hike or ride a multi-use trail on the Front Range, you've probably had a moment of friction with someone going a different speed on two wheels or two feet. Boulder County spent the last several months asking whether that friction was bad enough to start closing shared trails to certain users on certain days. On June 30, the county's answer came back: no.
What happened
Boulder County commissioners voted 2-1 to abandon a proposed pilot that would have limited access to certain county trails for some users on specific days, according to Boulder Reporting Lab. Commissioners Ashley Stolzmann and Marta Loachamin voted against every restriction option staff presented. Commissioner Claire Levy, who had proposed the idea in the first place, voted for the least restrictive of the three.
Instead of any access limit, commissioners directed staff to focus on education, trail etiquette, improved sightlines, and other design fixes aimed at reducing conflict without reducing access.
The idea started with Levy, who asked county staff to explore limiting bike access on certain days at Heil Valley Ranch after residents raised concerns about trail conflicts. All three commissioners later directed staff to develop full pilot options, according to Boulder County's own project page.
Staff ultimately brought commissioners three choices: directional loops at Heil Valley Ranch with no access restriction at all (staff's own recommendation), closing Heil Valley's Wapiti and Ponderosa trails to bikers on Thursdays while closing Wild Turkey and Picture Rock to hikers the same day, or restricting different user groups on trails at both Heil Valley Ranch and Hall Ranch on Wednesdays.
Why it drew so much pushback
More than 7,500 people responded to the county's survey, and roughly 70% opposed the idea of closing any trail to a specific user group on specific days, per Boulder Reporting Lab's coverage of the survey results.
At the June 30 meeting, Commissioner Loachamin pushed back on the premise of the whole pilot. "What are we trying to solve?" she asked staff, a question Boulder Reporting Lab reported was met with laughter from the mountain bikers in the room. Loachamin said she'd recently hiked Heil Valley Ranch's Wapiti Trail, one of the spots most often cited for conflict, and found the bikers she passed "super friendly."
The Boulder Mountainbike Alliance sent commissioners a letter the morning of the vote arguing for what it called "Alternative 0": investing in education, trail design, sightlines, and stewardship instead of any access restriction. That's effectively what commissioners chose. "I'm really positive our voice was heard," the Alliance's executive director, Wendy Sweet, said after the vote.
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What the county's own data actually shows
Here's the part worth sitting with: Boulder County's own 2025 Visitor Study found that only about 4% of visitors systemwide reported experiencing any conflict on a given day, and the most common type was a disagreement between a biker and a pedestrian, not anything more serious. That data lives right on the county's own project page.
Betasso Preserve remains the only county open space property with day-specific user restrictions already in place (no biking Wednesdays or Saturdays), a rule that's been around since a 2013 study. Levy pointed to Betasso as her model for Heil Valley Ranch, noting hiker use has declined there over the years. But Heil Valley Ranch logged about 66,000 visits in 2025, similar to Betasso, and the countywide data doesn't show conflict as common enough to justify closing trails to reduce it.
Trail-sharing etiquette that actually works
Since Boulder County is betting on behavior over restriction, here's what that actually looks like on any multi-use trail, whether you're in Boulder or anywhere else on the Front Range this summer.
- Bikers yield to hikers and horses, and everyone yields to horses. It's the standard right-of-way rule on shared trails for a reason: a horse can spook, a hiker can't get out of the way as fast as a rider can slow down.
- Call out on blind corners. A simple "on your left" or a bell gives everyone time to react before you're face to face.
- Match your speed to what you can actually see and stop for. Just because a trail is open to bikes doesn't mean every section is safe to ride fast.
- Keep dogs leashed or under close voice control on multi-use trails. An off-leash dog is often the actual cause of the "conflict" people report, not the other trail user.
- If you hit a trail that feels genuinely contested, that's useful information for the land manager. Boulder County's own survey is proof that public comment can change a real policy outcome, so say something instead of just avoiding the trail.
None of this fixes every bad interaction on a busy trail. But it's a lot closer to what the data actually supports than closing trails to entire user groups. Being considerate of other trail users is also just Leave No Trace ethics in practice; see tip #7 in our full Leave No Trace guide if you want the whole list.
Reporting from Boulder Reporting Lab and KUNC/Axios Boulder. Survey and visitor-study data via Boulder County's Alternating Trail Use Pilot Project page. For current trail conditions and any future updates on this pilot, check Boulder County's Open Space & Recreation page directly.
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